The price of oil justice

The price of oil justice

The Libyan man convicted of Britain's worst terrorist act and described as the biggest mass murderer in British legal history,Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, has been released from prison on compassionate grounds by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. According to Fraser Nelson "There's no question of his guilt: the evidence against him was overwhelming". However, Dr Hans Köchler, one of the UN observers at the trial, expressed serious doubts about the fairness of the proceedings and spoke of a "spectacular miscarriage of justice".

Given that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi appears to have been a convenient scapegoat it is understandable that the people in Libya celebrate his homecoming. And unreasonable of Gordon Brown to ask that no celebration should take place, and for Barack Obama to call for him to be placed under house arrest.

In 2004 when Tony Blair first visited Colonel Gaddafi, it was made plain by the latter that the "new relationship" must include the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. At the time relatives of the Lockerbie bomb victims were divided about this meeting. Today, they are still divided. Meanwhile, politicians attempt to place their feet in both camps. However, politicians cannot have it both ways.

If I was Colonel Gaddafi, I would ensure that the price of oil includes a tax to recover the cost of $1.5bn compensation paid by Libya to the victim's relatives. We cannot expect others to make a sacrifice if we are not prepared to make a sacrifice ourselves.

UPDATE:

Col Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, last night said that Megrahi's release was linked to trade deals with Britain, with British oil, gas and water treatment companies, banks, security contractors, tobacco firms and even women's high-street clothing stores in line for hundreds of millions of pounds of business.